Quincy OK's $20,835 for health district

QUINCY - Quincy approved a $20,835 agreement with the Grant County Health District.

The city's annual contribution to the district was divided into two portions. The first was a $2 per person contribution. The first portion pays for items which the district doesn't receive grants for. The money pays for items such as tracking communicable and sexually-transmitted diseases, food worker card testing, health fairs and healthy communities projects.

Health District Administrator Jeff Ketchel said the district worked on the city's Q-Fit challenge. The challenge also involved the Quincy Valley Medical Center, the Quincy School District and the Quincy Community Health Center.

The five-month program was held between June 3 and Oct. 27, and was designed to get adults and children exercising and learning about healthy eating. Participants exercised at 60 Quincy Valley checkpoints, advancing to the next checkpoint by doing an eligible exercise.

The district also is participating in a healthy communities initiative in the city. The kick-off is scheduled for January.

"We've also been very busy with the safe routes to school, not only planning, but assisting with the grant writing," he said. "Our safe kids coalition had a number of events here in Quincy. We had two bike rodeos at Mountain View (Elementary). We also did an event at Pioneer School, and also had a couple of car seat check-ups."

The district also is working on a health assessment for the county, Ketchel said. Quincy is one of the areas involved in the assessment. It is expected to be completed in 2013.

Pertussis continues to be an issue in the county, he said. Along with whooping cough, the county is dealing with an increased rate of gonorrhea. Incidents of the disease have increased from 15 between January and October 2011 to 52 between January and October 2012.

"We are one of the state leaders in rates of gonorrhea and our chlamydia rates are going to be much higher than they were in previous years," he said. "The gonorrhea rate is up about 250 percent this year. Most of that, however, is in Moses Lake."

The second portion is paying for a public safety assessment. The idea for the assessment rose out of the Public Safety Commission, and is going to be aimed at looking at the causes of crime in the city. Ketchel is a commission member.

"In the discussions it came up that some kind of public safety assessment would be something of interest for the City of Quincy," Ketchel said. "So we talked about adding that to the contract for 2013, and adding $1 per resident to cover that additional work."

The assessment involves an online survey for residents, an English- and a Spanish-language focus group, reviewing available information, he said. After the district analyzes the data, it will generate a report.

Mayor Jim Hemberry said the commission has worked on several issues since it was formed in 2011, following the gang-related shooting of Adan Beltran and concerns about crime raised by residents. The members want to step back and examine the causes of the problems in the city, so the commission can develop a plan to deal with them.

"It's just a way to put together a plan," he said. "We need this data to do that."